Etherium: hype, maybe not a scam. I personally don't see why they need $35m.
Emunie is interesting in some ways.
The emonie developer, however mercurial and paranoid he may be, has recognized that mining in bitcoin is mostly superfluous. The most valuable work in the network is transaction clearing and validation, and it is this work that should be subsidized with new coins (no more need for transaction fees). Mining in bitcoin is just a way to pick who gets to create the next block by running a race. Picking who gets to create the next block can be done in some random way, which is more egalitarian.
Possible cons:
Proprietary, whitepaper and source code withheld. Can't be properly vetted by the community.
Statement to the effect that emunie "will comply with the law" or attempt to disallow illegal activity. What this means in practice is hidden back-doors for law enforcement/nsa/etc, blacklisted accounts, and a host of other nightmares (the source is withheld, ouch).
The coins can't appreciate in value (any increase in value causes new coins to to flood into the network). Appreciation is incentive for early adopters, since early on the coins will have little use. The fact that users will be granted a stream of coins for just connecting may be alluring at first, but disappointment and abandonment may follow (the first paycheck from that first minimum wage job is nice, then you realize just how long it will take for you to actually earn anything substantial).
Might be overrun by botnets or farms, which could sweep up most of the new coins generated. Worse, a botnet could send transactions between its nodes to stimulate what appears to be demand. Most cryptocoins can be abused by botnets, but emunie's network might be stimulated to respond with a coin flood (I'm a bit unsure on this point, maybe not possible/feasible?).
Conclusion:
Some of Emunie's ideas are good ones, but emunie itself is not a candidate for adoption. It would be nice to see a group of open source developers adapt those ideas into a new altcoin.
Finally a constructive post! I thank you!
My statement of trying to stamp out gross illegal activity has been somewhat taken out of context in general. There will be no backdoor for TPTB, or myself, as it's impossible to do. What I meant was that if we were to become aware of it (we as in the eMunie community as a whole), we should do everything we can to stop it....this would typically involve good old infiltration of a manual nature, and not "opening up" supposed encrypted data and having a look who it is. That is impossible by design and we've gone to great efforts to ensure that all parts of the system are secure and anon.
Of course as you rightly state, eMunie will be closed source to general public for some time for reasons I've covered many many times, so other than give you assurances, there isn't much else I can offer in terms of convincing proof.
Another common mistake is assuming that a stable price means no ROI...there are 2 major components in any market, be it currency or commodity, and they are value and supply. eMunie attempts to steady the value, and moves the supply depending on the demand, this supply is then distributed proportionally to stake holders and hatcher that have performed work.
Assume you have 100 eMu at a value of $100, the market value isn't moving at all, the system isn't even attempted to stabilize it, its naturally stable at this point. Assume it stays this way for a year....your 100 eMu are still worth $100...0% ROI. However demand for eMu is high, so the system is creating lots of new eMu to absord the incoming value from fiat, gold or whatever else you decide to use. Assume that inflation over the year is 100%....you will receive 50 more eMu over that time (its a 50/50 split between hatchers and balance holders). You now have 150 eMu worth $1 each, 50% ROI.
Finally, demand isn't calculated by transaction volume, as this is both inaccurate and prone to the exact attack you point out. The P2P exchange drives the demand, though the various buy and sell orders that occur on there, as these are a better indicator of if demand is up, or down at any given moment.
